But here's the reason I am writing about this now. The biographical rave of this year comes from Victoria Wilson's massive, long-awaited first volume describing "A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940" (Simon & Schuster).

I just can't remember how long I was expecting Vicky Wilson to publish. But now she has and most of us can hardly wait for volume two, which will describe the great star's greatest years in Hollywood.

So, while I'm waiting for that, I ran across the following on Stanwyck by Kellow, who some call the finest movie critic of all time:

"One of Pauline Kael's favorite actresses of the '30s was Barbara Stanwyck. Decades later, she was one of the first critics to grasp fully the power and seamlessness of Stanwyck's craft, which was simple and spare and true, devoid of the sentimental, laid-on effects in which so many other female stars of the time indulged. Of Stanwyck's performance in the 1930 drama 'Ladies of Leisure,' directed by Frank Capra, she wrote: 'Though she came from the theater, Barbara Stanwyck seemed to have an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera; perhaps she had been an unusually 'natural' actress even onstage.' To Pauline, Stanwyck represented a 'remarkable modernism' and was 'an amazing vernacular actress.'

"This observation about Stanwyck was crucial to understanding the aesthetic that would later make Pauline famous, controversial and deeply misunderstood. She loved movies — and literature — that made honest, direct and imaginative use of plain American speech ... Pauline was less pleased with many of Hollywood's more high-minded efforts ..."

This explains in part why critic Kael was always feuding with her New Yorker boss, the lofty power William Shaw, who wanted her to write in a more lady-like manner.